Pages

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Beef Tenderloin w/ Espagnole Sauce

Wow... I've been M.I.A. for quite some time! It's been even busier around here, and it's hard to even wrap my head around what I've gotten myself into!

The restaurant is going quite well. I was on the pantry line (salads & desserts, a few cold and hot appetizers) for a bit of time, and last week I started training at the grill station. I'm having tons of fun, and learning a hell of a lot! Which is the whole point of all of this!

Did everyone (who celebrated) have a good Thanksgiving?! I know we did. My whole family went down to Andy's family's Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and it went quite well. I'm glad that our families could get together on a day like that and get along so well.

Anyway, I know everyone still might have turkey on the brain, but in honor of me training on the grill station, I thought a nice, juicy steak felt like just the thing to post. Hopefully I'll be back sooner next time, instead of going on a three week hiatus, but who knows what the next week of life has in store for me!

Rub each steak with about a tablespoon of olive oil. Season your steaks with salt and pepper, on both sides.

Place the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet. Drizzle with about 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss well and spread into one even layer. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.

Heat a large skillet under medium high heat. Add about a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and heat until shimmering.

Add steaks and cook until desired doneness (I think a medium rare is perfect, about 6-8 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of your cut). Let rest on a cutting board for about 5 minutes.

Warm up Espagnole Sauce, if needed.

To plate, place a good amount of sweet potatoes on the center of the plate. Top with steak and drizzle Espagnole sauce over top. Serve with a side salad of spinach and some fresh bread.

This brings "meat & potatoes" to a whole new level. It was a simple enough dinner to be ready in no time, but also one that is sure to impress dinner guests, as well!

And on a side note, a reader had asked in the comment section of the Espagnole Sauce recipe about a proper way to make a Demi Glace.

By definition, a demi glace is half brown sauce (Espagnole), half brown stock (beef stock), reduced by half. Easy enough right? So for 1 cup of demi glace, use 1/2 cup of Espagnole Sauce, 1/2 cup of beef stock... bring to a boil, then let reduce until the whole mixture is 1/2 cup, or until desires consistency.

Hope to see you guys sooner than later! And thanks for sticking around with me =)

Hi Peggy! I had a great Thanksgiving too in California. It was just me, my husband, and my parents. So I made a Hainenese Chicken Rice dinner with some simple vegetables. My mom made a Chinese "slow fire" soup that was just absolutely comforting and delicious! I'm glad to hear that you had a good Thanksgiving too! I hope the training at the grill station is fun. A.Bourdain talks about the burns and casualties in the kitchen in his books. I hope you are in a much kinder environment!

It is the Es-pan-yo-le sauce that got me really really interested. Kind of the pour the gravy into my meal kind of girl. I don't have much luck on tenderloin even with a lot of effort =( Almost always turns out not good, but I am willing to try again with a good sauce to cover up whatever will fail with my meat this time. Bring it on! I am ready to try your recipe...Thanks for sharing! (keep posting, despite the busy sched ;)

The beef tenderloin looks delish peggy!Tq for sharing the recipe with us and glad to hear that u having fun with ur "restauran-cooking-game" :DHow I "evny" you!just to hear a little story I just iamgine how cool and fun to work in a restaurant like that! Happy for u my dear!:)Happy thanksgiving and have a great week ahead! ;)

Hi Peggy! It looks like you have busy but fulfilling life! :-) Now this tenderloin looks awesome! I like everything on this plate. Really good looking dish! It's so nice that your family get along with Andy's and you two don't have to schedule who to meet on holiday like this... you can just say "let's meet together!" and all you decide is a location that fit two families. Glad you had a wonderful holiday!

So happy to hear from you!! Sounds like you are having an amazing experience. It's so nice that both of your family's spend Thanksgiving together! Me and my husband's family's are like that (not with Thanksgiving, but with other holidays) and it's the best. I feel so lucky!